An anecdote for Flickr users

I took two semesters of photography at the local community college during the summers following my Sophomore and Junior years of high school. I was too much of an AP whore (read: shameless nerd) to consider something as hedonistic as enrolling in an art class during the regular academic calendar.

Gene, my teacher for both sessions, was in his early seventies and infectiously spry if a bit long winded. He had taught photography at the high school for three decades and only managed to stay retired for two years before picking things back up to escape his wife. He obviously enjoyed the increased freedom that ‘higher education’ afforded teacher and student alike.

“I only have one rule,” he explained on the first day. “If you take a picture of your cat and try to develop it in my darkroom, I swear to God I will fail you.”